HK mourns victims of Lamma ferry disaster

HK mourns victims of Lamma ferry disaster | South China Morning Post

Flags flew at half mast around Hong Kong on Thursday at the start of three days of mourning for the 38 victims of the Lamma ferry disaster which sent shockwaves through city.

Chief executive Leung Chun-ying will lead senior officials in observing three minutes of silence at noon at the harbourside government headquarters, when schools and other public institutions will also fall silent.

Hong Kong's worst maritime accident in 40 years saw a high-speed ferry, the Sea Smooth, collide with a pleasure craft, the Lamma IV, carrying around 120 passengers on a trip to watch national day fireworks on Monday night.

The Lamma IV's left rear was torn open in the impact, throwing scores of passengers into the sea. The vessel's stern was flooded within minutes, trapping passengers in the submerged cabin.

British Prime Minister David Cameron sent his condolences to the victims after the British consulate confirmed that an unidentified Briton was among the dead.

US Consul General Stephen Young released a statement expressing his "deepest condolences" for the loss of life.

The European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also extended her condolences, saying the accident was "a serious blow to a city for which the sea is its soul".

Investigators pored over the wreck of the Lamma IV on Wednesday after it was salvaged and dragged onto a beach on Lamma Island, to the southwest of Hong Kong Island, where the accident happened on a clear night in relatively calm seas.

Authorities have said that in a six-month probe, investigators will try to determine why it sank so quickly, whether there was adequate safety equipment on board and if the captains of the vessels followed the rules of the sea.

Shock and disbelief that such an accident could have happened in one of the world's busiest ports, which prides itself on its state-of-the-art transport infrastructure, was giving way to grief as the traditional mourning period began.

"I never thought such a tragedy would happen here and so many people would die," survivor Ivan Lee, 47, told reporters on Wednesday.